"Bronze age graves, Neolithic pottery and the vestiges of a mysterious C-shaped enclosure that might have been a prehistoric industrial area are among the finds unearthed by archaeologists who have carried out preliminary work on the site of the proposed new road tunnel at Stonehenge." - The Guardian
The collection of ornate medieval reliquaries is now held by Berlin's state museums; the American heirs of German Jewish art dealers, claiming that the objects were sold to the state under duress in 1935, sued in U.S. federal courts to recover them under "the international law of genocide." The SCOTUS ruling declares, "We do not look to the law...
The 42"-by'28" bas-relief of a golden eagle, carved from a reddish volcanic rock called tezontle, was found by archaeologists at the Templo Mayor, the Aztecs' main religious site in what was then their capital city, where it was on the floor of an area devoted to the sun god Huitzilopochtli. - Smithsonian Magazine
Such quirky, esoteric mash-ups feel less like stylistic innovations and more like branding exercises, reflecting a present in which one’s ability to market oneself is more important than mastering a craft or coming up with fresh ideas. - The Spectator
"The National Institute of Anthropology and History, a division of the Mexico government dedicated to the preservation of cultural artifacts, has filed a legal claim over 33 pre-Columbian objects set to be auctioned at Christie's on February 9 in Paris. ... The pieces scheduled to be sold include sculptures, vessels, masks, plates, and figures from Aztec, Mayan, Toltec, Totonac,...
"The new regulations … mandate that dealers must conduct specific checks on clients and report suspicious transactions that may suggest money laundering to the government. … The report found that asking art buyers for personal information — including identity documents and proof of address — remains art business's biggest concern." (And the paperwork's a pain in the neck.) -...
"What happened on Jan. 6 had nothing to do with fences or barriers or bad security infrastructure at the Capitol. It was a human failure, not an infrastructure failure. Investigations are ongoing, but it’s already clear this was a tragedy of incompetent leadership, failed intelligence and a giant mess of missed or crossed communications. And yet some of the...
"The explosive claim was made in an open letter to Hermitage boss Mikhail Piotrovsky by Andre Ruzhnikov, who has been buying and selling Fabergé for 40 years. In it, he accuses Piotrovsky of 'insulting the good name of Fabergé, betraying your visitors' trust, operating under false pretences, and destroying the authority of the museum you have been appointed to...
The Spanish government has concluded what is, in effect, a 15-year rental agreement with Baroness Carmen Cervera, the widow of Baron Hans Heinrich von Thyssen-Bornemisza: in exchange for an annual payment of €6.5 million, she will allow her collection of 400 artworks — which range from Rembrandt and Caravaggio through van Gogh and Monet to Roy Lichtenstein, and estimated...
The mural, which also depicts women including Nina Simone, was the result of a popular vote four years ago. But "the far-right party Vox had called for the mural in the Madrid neighborhood of Ciudad Lineal to be removed and replaced with another representing five male and five female paralympic athletes. The current work, which is painted on the walls of...
Is it still March 2020? What content are we watching? Who even knows? Well, your museum. The Walker Museum's public programs manager: "People are looking to their local arts organizations for online content. Even though you can see the Berlin Philharmonic or go to the Met programs, I think there's still a real interest in what's happening in...
Rian Dundon: "I’m always trying to do portraits at these events as a way to cut through the visual noise of flags and sign boards etc. It’s easy to lose people to that stuff, and I want to make it clear that these are the individuals who took part in this." - Oregon ArtsWatch
When Nawapan Kriangsak inherited the priceless art collection of her father, scholar and collector Douglas Latchford, she already had a plan in motion to return his art to Cambodia, from whence most of it came during that country's civil war. Latchford's death in 2020 ended extradition efforts after "federal prosecutors in New York charged him with trafficking in looted...
There’s a village meeting each year to decide the theme. Village officials make a simple computer mockup and then ask art teachers to make more detailed drawings. Next, color-coded markers are staked into the watery field, and finally citizens are enlisted to fill in the spaces with the proper strain of rice plant. - Return to Now
